tasogare seibei

Mon Feb 17 11:46:22 EST 2003

Hi,

I saw three Japanese films at the festival.

"Bokunchi" by Junji Sakamoto (I was terribly bored by last year's "KT") -
which to me was outright annoying because of its disregard for the
characters. Sakamoto seemed only interested in getting as much cuteness out
of the story as possible.

"The Blessing Bell" I liked a lot - I'm not quite sure what it eventually
amounts to. Watching it was fun, though.

"Tasogare Seibei": well, yes, it's humble and it's human: but it's also
awfully slow moving and tiringly.

None of the films impressed anybody too much, as far as I could see.

For those who read German, my reviews are here:

http://www.jump-cut.de/filmkritik-bokunchi.html
http://www.jump-cut.de/filmkritik-theblessingbell.html
http://jumpcut.antville.org/stories/292510/ (Tasogare Seibei)

Ekkehard

----- Original Message -----
From: <robin at filmfestivals.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 5:14 PM
Subject: tasogare seibei

> Tasogaree Seibei was warmly applauded after the press screening I attended
> (I later attended a public screening where  the reaction was just as
> favorable)
>
> During the press conference with Yoji Yamada and (great) Min Tanaka, a
> sharp-tongued and Japanese-speaking American journalist stated something
> like "we are fed up with overblown American films screened in the Berlin
> competition, Tasogare Seibei deserves the Golden Bear for its sheer
> humanity and humility".
>
> But I guess the film was just "too Japanese" (too mild?) to win any prize
> at the festival...
>
> I loved it, by the way.
>
> (a friend of mine complained that the mellow credit song ruins it all! Who
> sings that song ?)
>
> Robin
>
>
>
>